By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor

SUAMICO – With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics recently coming to an end, Brock Bartol is hoping his Olympic career is just beginning.

Brock, a Bay Port freshman, and the son of Angela and Jon Bartol, recently returned from Lake Placid, New York, where he took part in a luge clinic.

A luge is a small one- or two-person sled where athletes sled face up and feet-first down an artificial track.

“I got started in luge when I saw there was a slider search coming to the area in 2016,” Bartol said. “It was like a luge sled, but it had roller skate wheels on it, so you could do it on the road. I did well there, so I was able to try on ice. I was a good candidate, so I was invited to be on the team.”

Bartol is a current member of the Junior Olympic Development Team.

Bartol said an injury in another sport also led him to try luge.

“I used to ski jump, but I broke my leg,” he said. “That switched me over to a different set of sports.”

With no luge tracks in the area, Bartol has two options to slide on ice in the country: Lake Placid or Park City, Utah.

“I consider my home track to be Lake Placid,” he said. “European lugers have more tracks to choose from.”

The 5-foot-4, 112-pound Bartol said size doesn’t matter in luge as much as a person might think.

“We focus lots on shoulder and back muscles to get good starts,” he said. “You need a good start to build your speed. Different countries have different strategies. Germany, for instance, has bigger lugers. From what I’ve noticed, smaller people start quicker. Luge is based more on strength and technique.”

A luger steers mainly by using his or her legs to flex the sled’s runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat.

“There are lots of things that go into steering,” Bartol said. “You use your legs for major steering, but you can also roll your head and shoulders, too. There are also two handles for minor corrections down the track.”

Racing sleds weigh approximately 50 pounds for singles and 60 pounds for doubles.

“I don’t have my own sled, so I use the team’s equipment,” Bartol said. “But, I’m the only one who uses my sled.”

Lugers routinely reach speeds of 80 mph, which Bartol said makes for an interesting trip down the track.

“I still get nervous each time,” he said. “I’ve crashed before, but my first time down – they didn’t start me from the top – was fun. It’s like extreme sledding.”

Luge’s counterpart, skeleton, which sends sliders down face first, is something Bartol said he’s never tried and has no desire to.

“Not at all,” Bartol laughed. “There’s no good method of steering (going face first).”

The Junior Olympic Development Team is a stepping stone for athletes looking to make the Olympic team, something Bartol said he wants to do.

“It’s my goal to make the Olympics someday,” he said. “To get better and have a chance, it will take lots of repetition and trial and error. I have to figure out how to go faster. I’ll keep pushing forward to try and reach my goal.”

When Bartol isn’t attending school in-person at Bay Port, he completes his classes online.

“I have another camp in Park City (before the school year ends),” he said. “That will be my first time on that track.”

Bartol does lots of cross-training to help his luging.

“I cross country ski with Bay Nordic and mountain bike,” he said. “I’m also going to play baseball this spring at Bay Port. It gives me another set of friends who like different things.”